Biracial means you have two races. Multiracial means you have two or more. It doesn't mean black and white only. I don't know why this is so confusing for people.

People can ID as they want, but if you want to follow the slave era one drop rule so be it. But don't force that view on people who don't. I will never follow one droppism.

Originally Posted by BekkaPoo

I think that this is problematic for me because most Blacks living in North America have white blood and are therefore "biracial" and probably also have aboriginal blood, therefore "multiracial." Many Mediterranean people have African and Arab blood. Most so-called Hispanics are "multiracial." I think everyone is multiracial and practically no one is simply biracial, but the terms are applied to people whose parents or grandparents look significantly different.

(I agree, if people want to call themselves that, feel free, but to me, one-dropism is still very much a social factor whether we like it or not, and SOME people think by labelling themselves a certain way, they can escape the worst of racism. Barack Obama is still the first Black president - Tiger Woods is still treated as a Black golfer - Malcolm X, Bob Marley, Langston Hughes, W. E. B. duBois, Frederick Douglass etc. were all great Black persons and did not see themselves or were not seen as biracial or multiracial for the most part. Also, I forgot to mention that identity is fluid - people may self-identify one way one time and another way another time. I myself consider myself Black but also recognize I'm multiracial, and don't see the two as mutually exclusive.)

Originally Posted by Amneris

Yes people with two races within them can technically call themselves Biracial (though it's commonly come to mean two races in equal proportion and each parent is of a different race) and before that the term Biracial meant a place where two races could legally gather. http://mulattodiaries.wordpress.com/...3/31/biracial/ 50/50 Black/White people were Mulatto. So I agree the terminology is problematic and not really of import. What is of import is confusing terminology does not change the fact that there are people who are "biracial" through first generation mixing or parents who look significantly different and people who are "biracial" through admixture (most of the Black people who America as you say) and there are differences in experiences they will have.

And so I will have to strongly disagree with you that there is no difference and as you have stated several times that "we are all mixed". I dislike this mentality, like many other Mulattos (and yes I am fully aware of the possible negative origin of this word and I choose to take it back for many reasons, one of which is just using the term Biracial gives One Droppist the opening to go on about how everyone is Biracial so nobody is, which they can not do with more specific terminology) and Mixed Race people becuase it diminishes our life experiences. Whether you or anyone else choose to acknowledge it there are specific life experiences and obstacles multiracial people will experience. As some blogger said to a Black American (and White Americans) who perhaps in trying to bond and make her feel more comfortable, wrongly said "Aren't we all mixed?" Even IF this were true, as she said "Does your White heritage claim you and come to pick you up from school? Becuase mine did." And as I talked about in a previous post there are people (Black and White) who have prejudices solely for mixed people. Not becuase we are Black but becuase we are "impure" or "mutts". Tragic Mulatto stereotyping is one. And these stereotypes existed long before Biracial was a word on a census. It's entirely possible to have racism without racial categories being legally recognized (also evident in the racism towards people of the African diaspora in many Hispanic countries that do not legally acknowledge race like Cuba), so I don't agree with you that we create more issues by creating more categories. These categories exist whether we acknowledge them or not. Yes most Black Americans have White admixture but their White ancestory didn't live with them, didn't kiss them good night. And that does make a difference. People of first generation and recent mixture go through things in a social setting that people of long ago admixture from a rapist slave master do not and vice versa.

I wish people would stop confusing race and/or religon with nationality.

I am Swedish, thus European but I am not caucasian, which is a common mistake made by Americans.
But if one goes back a couple of hundred years I sure that the vast majority of middle and northern Eurpeans were infact caucasian, but at the same time a hundred years before that the vast majority of Americans were American Indians...

I am biracial.

The word biracial bugs me however, as it does when people say they are "half white and half Black." You cannot divide yourself into halves - it makes no sense to me

I am not dividing myself, I am explaining my race.
I will not deny either my mother nor my fathers heritage (and I am probably one of the few that respects Tiger Woods for doing the same).
I pray to God my children, though looking white, would ever deny me or my race(s) either.

As biracial I do feel closer to my black heritage (because of my background in California) but that doesn't take away my white heritage, of which I am very proud of also.

It is up to every individual to define themselves (my sister defines herself as black).

Me, I'm pretty happy with being the wonderful mix of heritage, history and races that I am.

Originally Posted by ninadef

Good for you Nina. People who have a problem with the "half and half" phrasing are imposing their own prejudice on the phrasing. This is a good youtube short movie on my views on being able to be half and half but this not meaning your blood divides evenly in your veins or you aren't whole. We are sugar water: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUb4qqv0Fxo
not salt water.

Just becuase THEY can not concieve that someone can be Black and White simultaneously and these two things mixed peacably inside you does not mean it isn't so. Saying half and half is just convenient for some people, especially if asked about proportions, which is sometimes relevant. Though if I have a choice I describe my ancestory using a melded word like Mulatto or Eurafrican.

[quote=Amneris;1054337][quote=BekkaPoo;1054277]

I think that this is problematic for me because most Blacks living in North America have white blood and are therefore "biracial" and probably also have aboriginal blood, therefore "multiracial." Many Mediterranean people have African and Arab blood. Most so-called Hispanics are "multiracial." I think everyone is multiracial and practically no one is simply biracial, but the terms are applied to people whose parents or grandparents look significantly different.

(I agree, if people want to call themselves that, feel free, but to me, one-dropism is still very much a social factor whether we like it or not, and SOME people think by labelling themselves a certain way, they can escape the worst of racism. Barack Obama is still the first Black president - Tiger Woods is still treated as a Black golfer - Malcolm X, Bob Marley, Langston Hughes, W. E. B. duBois, Frederick Douglass etc. were all great Black persons and did not see themselves or were not seen as biracial or multiracial for the most part. Also, I forgot to mention that identity is fluid - people may self-identify one way one time and another way another time. I myself consider myself Black but also recognize I'm multiracial, and don't see the two as mutually exclusive.)

Originally Posted by Amneris

Well though I have already talked about how I disagree with the idea that being multiracial is meaningless and cettainly that calling yourself first generation biracial is meaningless, I will say I agree with the second part of this about accepting people will see you as Black is a social factor. I accept that people will see me as Black becuase Black people are mixed admixture wise so can look just like me and in American society the ODR is very much alive (you have Black in your features you are Black). While I don't fault anybody for saying they are solely Biracial I find it easier to accept the coping mechanism of multiple identities. Not in a schizophrenic way (becuase most of us have multiple identities according to who we are talking to at any given moment or in different situations whether we realize it or not, you don't talk to your grandmother the same way you talk to a husband or stranger) but in a practical way the world has forced us to develop multiple racial identities. I am Mulatto, I am Black, and I am getting better at calling myself White as well. I don't often use this identity but it's within me as it should be. It's about time we also realized being a Biracial is not mutually exclusive with being European American anymore than it's mutually exclusive to being African American.